Shadow Soldiers
by jkmrsy
Summary: Emiko has been to our modern world twice in her life. Now she's back in her own, with a few things brought back-although it seems most of her memories are not included. Will she ever remember her past, and what of her best friend slowly becoming more?
1. Chapter 1

**Name:** Emiko Itonami

**Age:** 12

**Personality:** Almost always happy, can get hyper on the smallest amount of sugar, random, when mad can overdo it

**Abilities:** The weird thing about Emiko's keke genkai is that she has two. This is because her parents are from different clans, each with it's own keke genkai.

Her first keke-genkai is that she can kill somebody with a single glance if she wanted to and can bring them back to life with the same glance. The only problem with this jutsu is that it is very draining-almost to the point of death. This one came from her mom's side of the family.

On her dad's side is the keke genkai of basiacally avoiding death. She could be on the verge of death and just touch a simple blade of grass-or any other living organism-and transfer what's left of her life to it and take its life. Any wounds that she has will also disappear. When doing so she must say or think "Life Transfer Justsu."

Emiko specializes in her chakra control and has never run low on chakra before. The weapons that she most often uses are kunai and shuriken. Sometimes she gets a little too hyper though and misses her mark. She barely ever thinks before she acts unless it is something important. She mostly fights on impulse and changes one move to another at the last second.

The elements she mostly uses are earth and water. She is also very skilled in camoflauge and can hide herself in a matter of seconds when it's called for.

**History: **Emiko is from the Village Hidden in the Shadows. She was born with a demon placed in her. Not as a monster or a weapon though. She was supposed to be a hero to her village.

Her demon is different from the rest though. She's a good demon and won't give any special abilites or heal her host if they're fighting for a wrong reason. Even if it means her death.

Emiko's been teleported to another world only twice in her life-our world. She was eight the first time and she only got the chance to stay for a day, but she did aquire some things like her laptop. The second time she was teleported she was ten and she stayed there for years and concidered that her home.

Then one night while she was sleeping with most of her stuff she was teleported back to the world that she originally lived in without even knowing. She woke up in the middle of the woods one day. A man found her lost and confused and took her home with him. He and his wife took care of her until she had recovered.

The problem was that she was having trouble with memory loss. The couple adopted Emiko when she didn't regain her memory. They became like her parents.

Her life basiaclly changed. Her real parents never technically existed. She remembered nothing of her past life other than the jutsus that she learned, yet she remembered everything about her old village except for it's location and inhabitants. All other memories were gone...

**Looks: **Emiko has peachy skin and blue eyes. Her light brown hair is barely shoulder length and she has a double star pin in it. She has a hoodie that cuts off and has no sleeves or back aside from a thin strip keeping it around her. She also wears black shorts that come to her knees. Her sandals are black and she wears bangle bracelets-one red, one blue, and one clear and with stars.

* * *

><p>"Mom! Dad! I'm going out, okay?" Emiko yelled to her parents.<p>

Her mom poked her head from around the corner. "You're not going to the Leaf Village are you?" she asked.

"No," Emiko groaned.

"How long are you going to be out this time?" her mother asked.

"I dunno. A couple hours," the girl guessed. She ran out the door to avoid more questions.

Her dad stopped her at the wood stack. "How long?" he asked.

"Tell mom I changed my mind. I'll be gone all day," she said, thinking that this was a perfect opportunity to train since her dad was busy.

"Okay," he laughed.

She ran off. He shouted to his daughter. "Don't go to-" "The Leaf Village. I know dad!" she shouted back as she ran.

It was a few miles until she stopped running. She had come to a clearing in the woods where she usually went to secretly train. Her parents never liked the whole ninja thing. That's why they didn't want her to go to the Leaf Village. She never knew why they didn't like them. Ninja in general seemed alright to her. She wanted to be a ninja, and the acadamy was going to start accepting new students who had some experience in a few days.

Applying was the easy part. It was keeping it all a secret from her parents that was going to be a chore. But the girl shook it off. One of the things a ninja should know is how to decieve an opponent. In this case her opponents were her parents.

She ran up a tree and grabbed a pack of weapons that she hid there. Most of them were kunai and shuriken, but she had a couple bigger shuriken and a few senbon and such. Emiko jumped down from the tree and landed on her feet a few seconds later. Then she made a few handsigns and channeled chakra to her fingertips. Her first finger burst into flames and she singed the outline of a human on a few trees.

Then she took some of her weapons and began target practice. She was pretty good at what she was doing and hit every time. After a while though, she got bored throwing weapons at trees. She needed a moving target; maybe several. So she made a few shadow clones-they were one of the most common jutsus of her original village-and got in a fighting stance.

She made clones and fought for a good four hours. It had been a while since she had a good workout and after four hours she was dead tired. She let all of her shadow clones disappear and she let herself fall to the ground.

"That, felt good..." she sighed to herself.

She knew that she was going to pass out any second. It was a common thing with her. Emiko would always overwork herself in everything. She yawned and then passed out on the ground within seconds.

After a while she woke up to somebody shaking her body. She groaned and sat up. "What's going on?" she asked.

"It looks like you passed out," a boy's voice came.

She turned to face a boy with his hair pulled up and a sleepy look on his face. "Who the heck are you?" she yelled, jumping back a little.

He covered his ears. "Geeze. Don't talk so loud. Troublesome woman..." he said. "And I'm Shikamaru."

She smiled softly and held out her hand for him to shake. "Emiko," she said. There was something familiar about him that made her trust him immediately. He took her hand and helped her up. "So Shikamaru where are you headed?" she asked.

"Up to this hill I used to go to when I was a kid," he said.

"Mind if I join you?"she asked. She thought that she could use some time with people since it didn't happen very often.

"Sure, I don't mind," he said, shrugging. "I have to warn you though, I'll probably end up watching the clouds and falling asleep," Emiko warned.

"That's okay. I love to watch the clouds and sleeping is my life," he said. She laughed at that.

Then she gathered her things and packed them up. She tied them to her belt and started off. Shikamaru called to her. "Hey! Shouldn't I lead the way? I know where it is after all..." he said.

Emiko laughed. "Shikamaru, I live here. I know that there's only one good hill to watch clouds from."

He chuckled to himself and caught up to the girl. On the way there, they told each other about themselves. It was pretty interesting to find out that both of them liked watching clouds and being lazy at inopportune times, among other things.

When they got to the hill, she turned to him. "Is this it?" she asked.

"Yeah! How did you know?" he asked, astonished.

"To tell you the truth, I don't really know," she replied. "But I figured that this would have to be it since-like I said-there's only one good hill to watch the clouds from."

The small talk-and the fact that there really wasn't much of it**-**started to make the moment akward. After a while Emiko decided to change the subject. "So, you want to watch the clouds or what? The grass makes a great bed," she offered.

The boy smiled. "Yeah sure," he said.

She didn't know why, but there was a connection between her and Shikamaru. They were completely comfortable around each other. It was like they knew each other for years, even though they only met a few minutes ago.

He sat down beneath the only tree on the hill and she sat down next to him. Then she leaned back on her arms. He lied down with his arms behind his head. Not a word was spoken for the longest time. Soon Emiko heard light snores and looked over to see Shikamaru had fallen asleep. She smiled and looked back at the clouds. A few minutes later she too fell asleep.

She started to dream. In the dream she was a little girl, running and playing in the grass on that very hill. She was laughing and then fell to roll in the grass.

"Hey! Wait for me Emiko!" a little boy's voice called. "Emi!"

She got up and yelled to the voice. "I'm up here Shika!" she yelled.

A little boy that looked eerily similar to Shikamaru ran up. The two of them laughed then Shikamaru tackled her and started tickling her. She started laughing uncontrollably.

"Shika! Stop it! Stop! Shikamaru, stop it! I can't breath! Shika!" she gasped, trying to get air into her system.

He stopped for a second to let her breathe. She pushed him off and sat on him. "Hey!" he shouted.

"Not so fun, is it?" she laughed.

She then sumersaulted off of him and continued down the hill. Shikamaru called to her. "Emi! Come back here!" he yelled down at her.

"I'm coming!" she said. She ran up the hill and collapsed.

"Emiko are you okay?" Shikamaru said skidding to a stop over her.

She smiled softly. "I'm fine. I just-" she started before passing out.

Emiko couldn't see anything anymore, but the dream still continued with Shikamru's voice. "Emi! Emi! Emiko!" There was a pause. "Troublesome girl. You'd think she would pass out just because of the trip she takes all the way from the Shadow Village. She's one of a kind, that girl. Emi, you just amaze me..." he said, his voice fading out as Emiko came back to reality.

She jumped up from the position she was in. "Shikamaru!" she yelled, shaking him. "Shikamaru wake up!"

He groaned. "What?" he murmured.

"Get up! This is important!" she said.

He opened one eye. "What is it?" He was getting annoying.

"Shika! Get up now! I need to tell you something!" she said frantically.

The second she called him Shika, his eyes shot open and he flew up. "You just called me Shika," he said, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I know. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well uh no...It's just...ahh," he studdered.

"Spit it out!" she snapped at him.

"There's only one person that ever called me Shika before. She dissapeared a long time ago," he whispered.

"I just had a flashback in a dream," Emiko said, becoming choked up. "Shikamaru, I'm that girl. It's me...Emiko."

He was completely shocked and his face went pale. "Emi?" he asked.

The girl nodded her head and smiled. He smiled the biggest smile she had ever seen made even more so considering it was also on the face of the laziest person she ever knew.

"Oh my God! EMI! Where did you go?" he asked, gripping his friend in a tight hug.

She hugged him back. "When I was little, I was somehow teleported to a different world. I had no control over it, or I would have come back," she said.

He pulled away. "But the important thing is that you're here now," he confirmed.

Then out of nowhere Emiko started laughing. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"I just had a thought. No wonder we had so much in common! It's a wonder that we didn't remember sooner!" she told him, still laughing.

He started to laugh with her. This was the happiest and most energetic she had ever seen him. He got up. "I have to tell everyone that my other best friend is back!" he said.

She quickly got up and grabbed his wrist. "No Shika. My adoptive parents don't approve of the whole ninja thing," she warned. "I know everyone else is going to the Acadamy. The only other person I want you to tell is Choji. But don't tell him directly, or he'll blurt it out to everyone."

Shikamaru sighed, understanding her. "Okay..." he said. "Wait a second! Did you say adoptive parents?"

"Yeah. Why?" she asked.

"Last time I saw you, you had real parents. What happened to them?" he asked.

"I don't know. My memory was wiped when I teleported back. All I know is that I'm from the Shadow Village and that I know quite a bit of jutsus. Nothing else," she said wistfully.

He stared at her, confused. "That's weird," he said.

"I know..." she conceided.

"If Shadow wasn't so elusive and if you had ever told me about how to get there when we were young, I could be of some help," he said.

"Yeah. Now I feel dumb for keeping the secret," she said as she stared at the sky. It was at least noon.

"You know what I remember most about our childhood?" Shikamaru asked.

"What?" she said.

"This!" he said as he pounced on his friend and started tickeling her.

"Ah! Shikamaru stop!" she yelled. "I can't-I can't breathe! Shika!"

He laughed too, though he didn't relent. Then, a black, brown, and white wolf jumped on him and knocked him off her. Nineteen other wolves followed in persuit.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru yelled.

The first wolf was on his chest and staring down at him, growling. He looked scared. "Emiko!" he yelled.

"Kite down!" Emiko scolded. She growled at the girl. "Kite! Are you giving me a tone?" Emiko said.

She bowed her head and got off of him. The others all looked at Emiko as well. "Yes, you too," she said. They all nodded and stepped back.

Shikamaru sat up. "Eh, hehe. Did I mention that I have my own pack now?" she said, shyly.

He closed his eyes and shook his head while smiling in disbelief. "You always did have a thing for wolves. I just never imagined that I'd see you again with twenty wolves pouncing on me," he laughed.

Emiko joined in. "Really sorry, Shika," she said with her hand behind her head.

"It's okay. Why'd they want to kill me anyway?" he said.

"They thought you were attacking me. I'm like the alpha female of the pack," Emiko explained.

He laughed. "Yeah, I can imagine that. So, who's the alpha male?" he asked, wary of being attacked again.

"There isn't one," she said. "They've been bugging me to get one. I just can't explain to them that humans are different and need more time than they do," she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"So they all have names, right?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah. Everyone, line up!" she ordered. She pointed to each wolf as she named them. "This is Kite, Rikka, Kumo, Omoi, Kaji, Daichi, Kihaku, Sougen, Ikioi, Naito, Taizen, Chisoku, Wakai, Otokooya, Namanamashii, Raikou, Hahaoya, Kashikoi, Shisuta, and Segare,"she said, smiling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Emiko's P.O.V.**

By the time noon had come around Emiko had gotten very bored. Not moving for hours greatly annoyed her. Even the wolves were getting bored.

"Shikamaru? Can we go to the village?" she asked.

He sat up. "I thought you weren't allowed to go," he said.

"I'm not," Emiko sighed. "I was just checking that you were still as smart as you used to be...or if you turned into a dumbass!" She laughed, flipping out of the way as he moved to tackle her.

"Face it Shikamaru! I'm a better shinobi than you are, even without all the official stuff!" the girl laughed.

He stood up with her. "But I am smarter than you. You know how brain over brawn works," he said.

"Since when does brains beat skill?" she asked, walking down the hill with her wolves following behind her.

Shikamaru laughed and walked with her. She stopped by her training area and dropped off the weapons she hadn't bothered to put away earlier. The wolves all dispersed on her except for Kite, who was with her most of the time as it was.

It was going to be a while before her parents started expecting her home, so she asked Shikamaru to show her the best way to the village. She would want to know for later. He was confused as she was kind of sending him mixed signals about the village. At least, he looked confused to Emiko. Who knew what was going on in his head?

"Shika, I'm going to disobey my parents and start going to the academy in a few days. They'll be accepting people with experience soon," she explained.

"So I'm going to be seeing you again?" he asked hopefully.

"If we're lucky enough to be in the same class," Emiko said.

He smiled and turned, waving for her to follow. When they got to the village gates in about an hour the two hugged each other and parted ways. "Don't forget to find Choji!" Emiko yelled as she left.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" he said, waving goodbye to her and Kite.

Emiko and her second in command walked off to go home. The two took a detour to take up time. She shouldn't get lost if she travelled in the same general direction that they came from. Besides, if she was going to become a ninja of the Leaf she would need to know the forest around it.

"You can do so much better," Kite said.

"Huh?" the human asked looking at her.

"That boy. He's far too lazy to be an alpha male," she said.

"What?" Emiko asked. "Oh, shut up! He's just my friend!" she said, blushing madly.

"_Right_..." the wolf said, rolling her eyes.

"Afternoon sweetie," Emiko's dad said as they walked up to the house.

"Hey dad," she waved.

"You're home sooner than expected," he mused. He drove his ax into a log and walked up to her and gave her a hug.

"Yeah. I just had an unexpected event that threw my whole day off," she explained.

"Really?" he asked.

Emiko nodded sheepishly, hoping he wouldn't look too much into it. Knowing him, he probably wouldn't so long as she didn't mention any people. Her mother was a different story. Hopefully, she wouldn't ask about the early return today. Emiko walked Kite around the cabin to the back where the stream was and sat down with the rest of the pack.

"So guys," she started, leaning against Sougen like a pillow. "You all know that I'm going to the village in a few days to enroll in the academy. You won't be able to come seeing as you're all wolves, but I'm thinking on taking Kumo and Wakai with me to teach them some stuff."

The pups, who were resting at the edge of the group, immediately shot their heads up. They weren't really interested until they heard that they could go to the village and learn how to be ninja hounds.

"But, they're not going the first day. I want the pack's aproval on something first. How do you feel about collars?" she asked.

"Don't tell me you're planning on turning us into pets," Chisoku said.

"Not at all," Emiko laughed. "I plan on getting them implanted with radios so we can communicate while we're separated. Not to mention you can also pick up on what I'm being taught if I bug myself," she pointed out.

"Well I'm all for it!" Taizen said enthusiastically.

Some of the wolves howled their agreement. The others started barking up a storm, still not too keen on wearing collars. Emiko's mom opened the back door.

"Emiko, keep it down! You may be able to stand it, but normal human ears can not!" she yelled over the pack's howling.

"Sorry mom! Guys cut the noise!" Emiko yelled.

They stopped and stared at her, waiting for the next order. "Guys, they won't be uncomfortable," she said.

"How do you know?" Rikka said. "Do _you_wear collars all day long?"

"I've worn choker necklaces. They're not that bad," Emiko said. "Besides, these are different. They'll have radios and you can take them off whenever we're at home."

The pack looked at each other, deliberating. Sometimes they could communicate without saying a word. It was kind of weird sometimes. But, it was also the only way to secretly talk with each other. After a few minutes they came to a decision.

"Alright, we'll wear them," Rikka said.

"Well, I'm glad to see we're all in agreement then," she said.

"In agreement about what?" her mom asked from the door.

"Just our little game. We have a game day to exercise them and apparently I picked the right one," the girl lied smoothly.

"What are you playing?" her mom asked skeptically.

"Oh, just hide and seek, tag, and a tracking game all tied into one. We call it all out because it tests just about every aspect that we can think of," Emiko said quickly. That actually sounded pretty good. She'd have to actually pull that up with them. It would really be great training if they were going to be ninja hounds.

"Right," her mom laughed. "Why don't you come inside for something to eat. It's getting late," she said.

Emiko looked up at the sky and noticed that she could see stars already. Wow. She was out longer than she had thought. It must have been the nap before Shikamaru found her.

"Alright everyone, go hunting and then bed," she instructed the wolves before going inside for dinner.

**Shikamaru's P.O.V.**

Shikamaru walked through the village very slowly, trying not to let too much of his excitment out. The last thing he needed was for somebody he knew to see him overreacting. Soon he was at the Akimichi household. He knocked on the door and it opened to reveal Choza.

He smiled down at the boy. "Hello Shikamaru. Come on in," he offered.

"Actually, I need to borrow Choji for a moment," Shikamaru said.

The man nodded. "Choji, Shikamaru's here for you!" he yelled down the hallway.

"I'm coming dad!" Choji yelled.

It didn't take long for him to come around the corner. Of course he was stuffing his face with a bag of chips in his hand. If Shikamaru didn't know any better he would swear that the thing was unemptyable and permanantly glued to the boy's skin.

"Hey Shikamaru!" he smiled, talking with his mouth full.

The genius smiled back. Then he grabbed Choji's arm and yanked him out the door. "We'll be back by dinner Choza," he said. There was no response, which meant that he was fine with it.

"Shikamaru? What's the big deal?" Choji asked.

He pulled his arm out of the other boy's grip and rubbed at the red spots that were left. "You're never this pushy," he said.

"This is important!" Shikamaru nearly hissed in excitement.

Choji gave him a strange look, but followed him anyway. It was taking forever for them to get where he wanted to go. He'd never been this excited before. To be fair, he was almost never excited. He had to work to keep himself from breaking into a run, and Choji could tell.

"Shikamaru...are you okay?" he asked nervously.

The thinner of the two ignored the other and started to the top of his favorite building - their usual meeting place. Finally! They were there. The second they were up the stairs Shikamaru turned around and grabbed Choji's shoulders. Now that he could actually show his emotions safely he was smiling so wide that it was starting to hurt.

"Shikamaru, you're starting to creep me out..." Choji said, leaning away.

"She's back!" Shikamaru said. "Choji, Emiko's back!"

The other's face blanked for all of a second. Then he started hyperventalating. "She's back? Where? When? How?" he asked.

"Yes. In the woods today and it's a long story," Shikamaru said, answering all of his questions at once.

The two sat down on the bench on the roof and Shikamaru explained the whole story. Why she disappeared and how she was adopted and the wolves. Everything. They were both nearly in tears by the time he had finished. He wasn't sure if it was from the joy of seeing Emiko again, reliving how much he missed her when she disappeared, or just all of the emotional stress he had been through in the course of the day.

"I've gotta go tell my dad!" Choji said, standing up.

"No!" Shikamaru lashed out to grab Choji's arm again. The latter pulled his arm away and started rubbing it again.

"Dude, you've gotta stop doing that or I'll lose all feeling in my arm and I'll never become a ninja," he complained.

"Sorry..." the other apologized. "But she told me that nobody other than us is allowed to know she's back. Well, at least of those who know her," he said.

"Why?" Choji asked.

"Her adoptive parents aren't all that fond of ninja and she's not even allowed inside the village," Shikamaru explained.

"Since when would that stop her?" Choji asked, now confused.

"It's not. She's sneaking out to join us in the academy, but you still can't tell your parents. It might get out and we don't know what will happen," Shikamaru warned.

He nodded and they shook on it. Then Shikamaru looked up at the sky. It was getting dark out. "Well, you better get home. Your mom's probably got dinner ready and mine's gonna kill me. How troublesome..." he sighed.

The two of them parted ways and Shikamaru continued on to his house. As soon as he walked through the front door he was being harassed. Just like he had predicted.

"Shikamaru! Where have you been all day? You were supposed to be home three hours ago!" his mother yelled at him.

"I was busy mom..." the boy sighed.

"Doing what?" she asked harshly.

"The usual. Can we talk about this later? I'm kind of tired," he asked, trying to change the subject.

"No. Tell me now," she insisted.

"Oh, leave the boy alone Yoshino. He's usually on time so give him a break," Shikaku said, walking into the room.

Shikamaru inwardly sighed in relief at his dad's intervention. Hopefully it would be worth it. After a slight discussion-more like argument-between the parents, Shikamaru was forgiven although he was sent to his room directly after dinner by his mother as a repercussion. He was actually kind of glad. Now he wouldn't have to stay up and listen to her yell at him even more. He stripped down and got into bed, falling asleep before his head even hit the pillow.


End file.
